Pepe: Qualification from tough group a good performance

The Portugal international is quite satisfied with his side's Champions League progress from a difficult group, and admitted that Madrid struggled after the break against City

Pepe has voiced his delight with Real Madrid's qualification for the knockout stages of the Champions League, and feels the Spanish powerhouse have done a good job to survive the group stages.

Madrid recorded a 1-1 draw away against Manchester City on Wednesday to secure second spot in Group D following Ajax's heavy loss to Borussia Dortmund, and Pepe was pleased with his side's progress.

"I think in a difficult group like this, it's good to qualify for the knockout stages," Pepe was quoted as saying on the Uefa website.

"We've achieved our objective. This was quite a tough group with teams who were all domestic champions and it's hard for any team to stand out, but happily we've managed to get through to the next phase.

"We worked hard today [Wednesday] against City who are a good team. We played a good first half at a tough ground. We had a good tempo going but in the second half we weren't as good as we'd have hoped, though, we still came away with a draw and qualification."